Full Coverage
by Lifeless Heartless
Summary: Ace is a high level empath, but he doesn't let anyone know it, outside of his family. Sabo is a Magical Boy with the citizens eating out of his hands. Marco is Sabo's boyfriend and a superhero that can turn into a Phoenix, also beloved by the society. Sabo and Marco don't even know Ace exists, but he knows them. Oh, and they're all classmates for their final year at high school.
1. O Início

**So I sort of entered into a Fic trade with AuthenticAussie? They like Magical Girls and MAS so somehow this happened? Became a monster? I regret everything and nothing.**

 **Beta-ed by the lovely, Setsuyume~**

 **Enjoy it~**

 **ONWARD!**

" _Meu amorzinho_! (My little love!) Are you almost ready for school?!" a light feminine voice rang throughout a modest two-story house.

A beautiful woman with strawberry blond hair stood at the foot of the stairs, a hand on the rail and the other brushing down the skirt of her white dress.

" _Meu amorzinho_!" the woman yelled, her voice matching the one that rang out earlier. Her grey eyes were hidden by her eyelids as she closed them in exasperation. Her freckled nose scrunched as she opened her pick lips to yell again.

" _Sim mãe_! (Yes mom!) I will be down!"

The woman smiled lightly at the slightly off English, but still turned to head into the kitchen with a light hop in her step. Her son's voice often made her as happy as a school girl.

The son in question was upstairs in his room, which was just big enough, standing in front of a full length mirror and scowling at his reflection.

" _Feio_. (Ugly.)"

His light grey eyes, that matched his mother, flicked down from the long shaggy black hair, the dark face mask that covered his nose, mouth, cheeks, and ears. A tight black turtleneck covered by a baggy dark grey long-sleeved button-up followed as his light eyes continued flicking down.

" _Inútil_. (Worthless.)" His gruff voice echoed aloud.

Darkened eyes took in the too slim waist and the black baggy cargo pants, before the slim eyes landed on his black and silver combat boots. With a sneer his eyes trailed back to the thick leather gloves that wrapped up the hands lying limply at his side.

The boy let out an audible sigh before he took down the large goggles off of his dresser, slipping them on with a long repeated movement. Then he tucked his loose hair into his turtleneck before slipping on the black beanie that covered up the tips of his ears and the last remaining sliver of showing skin.

" _Outro dia, outra dor, Ace_. (Another day, another pain, Ace.)" He said to himself, as he said every morning when he had to leave the safety of his house.

Grabbing the always packed backpack, Ace was on his way out the door and down the stairs in short order, his muffled voice yelling out a greeting to his mother. As he did every morning.

" _Bom dia mãe_. (Good morning, mother.)" The teen placed his covered lips against his mother's cheek, bracing himself, but still jolted at the rush of love, affection, sincerity, and worry that waved through him.

" _Bom dia meu filho. Todo vestido_? (Good morning, my son. All dressed?)" she spoke back, her eyes twinkling as she watched her son lower his face mask to take a big bite of her breakfast.

" _Sim, apesar de ainda não entender por que tenho que ir à escola. Você e o pai estavam indo bem_. (Yes, though I do not understand why I have to go to school. You and father were doing fine.)" Ace grumbled as he took another bite of his spicy eggs, smiling lightly at the taste his mom's _piri-piri_ *. Few things made him smile these days so he was glad for the sauce.

"Speak in English darling one. You need to get some more practice in. Maybe the kids at school will lay off if you stop forgetting words?" the woman turned from the stove, plopping another _bolo lêvedo_ ** onto his plate while motioning to the side for the _piri-piri_ she bottled earlier in the week.

"Also you have been attending school for over a year now. Are you going to continue asking why you have to attend every morning?"

She frowned and watched as Ace slowed his eating, his head turned slightly to indicate his discomfort with her statements.

" _Inglês é difícil, por que tenho que saber isso_? (English is difficult, mom. Why do I have to know it?)" Ace's cheeks puffed and his mother giggled, smiling as she looked at her son with fondness before being distracted by her yawing husband walking out of their room.

" _Bom dia xodó_! (Good morning dear***)" the man exclaimed, pulling the woman to his side as he placed a loud kiss onto her cheek, his wife giggling the whole time.

" _Manhã, velho_. (Morning, old man.)" Ace spoke through a full mouth, his father smiling at his son with a look of fondness.

" _Manhã_ yourself, you brat!"

"Roger! Don't call your son a brat!" the mother yelled while smacking her husband on the shoulder. The tall black haired man with a rather elaborate mustache smiled at his wife, kissing her again on the forehead before speaking.

"But, Rouge! He started ittttt!"

"You are the adult!"

"But _xodó_!"

"Do not but me!" Rouge smacked the man again, this time with the spatula in her hand, sliding Ace another _bolo lêvedo_ shortly after she did so.

" _Mãe e pai são tão nojentos_. (Mom and dad are so gross.)" Ace spoke again, his head tilted as he scarfed down the last biscuit. Roger laughed loudly but Rouge couldn't help but glare at her son.

"English!"

" _Mas mãe_! (But mom!)"

"No buts from you either, young man! Start practicing your English!"

"Come on, Rouge. We raised him to be a good _Português_ man! Speaking _Português_ is good!" Roger laughed, swiping one of the other finished _bolo lêvedo_ and dancing away before his wife could smack him again.

"Ace goes to an English school! He could speak _Português_ all he wants if he could speak English just as well! But he cannot! So he must practice!" Rouge scowled much like her son tended to do as she placed his packed lunch next to him.

Ace winced a bit as she did, her proximity giving him a blast of irritation, worry, and love. He hoped that his mother was too irritated to notice his physical reaction, but there was no such thing when it came to Rouge and her son.

"Oh I'm sorry, darling. I did not mean to get too close…" Rouge's grey eyes shifted downward and Roger wrapped her up in one of his strong arms, trying to comfort his wife. Though it never really worked, no matter how much both males hoped it would.

"It is fine, _mãe_. I was just…uh…shocked?" Ace stumbled over his words, trying to find the right one, he glanced over at his father's face, judging it to see if maybe he got it right this time?

"Shocked is good, _meu filho_ , but maybe surprised would work better?"

Although Roger often corrected Ace's confusion, it always came with a feeling of regret and understanding. Two feelings the son rather disliked when they were paired together.

"I-I will go to school. I will try to…to English better. Tonight, I will see you, _mãe. Velho_." Ace pulled up his mask as he spoke, muffling the end of his chopped sentence. He stood and placed his plate in the sink, pressing his covered lips to his mother's cheek once more and shuddering with the sheer amount of worry he could feel, **without** skin contact. She must be really worried for him if he could feel that much while completely covered.

Ace took off shortly after, barely sparing a second look to either of his parents; his backpack was slung over one shoulder and his lunch box in hand.

Roger and Rouge shared a look of equal worry before they started preparing for their own day.

"I wish we could have kept him away from all the people longer." Rouge sighed, removing the white apron from atop her dress, hanging it over the oven handle as she started picking up the dishes from breakfast.

A sigh escaped her husband as he started to assist her with the cleaning, scowling to himself every now and then.

"That would have ended up badly, my darling. He still feels so **much** even though his skin is covered. He's getting **stronger** , and after seventeen years of just our emotions, and Luffy's on occasion, he needs to learn how to deal with more than that. We…we cannot keep him secluded forever…"

"It would have been better if I never accepted that stupid flower when I was young. It is…it is mostly my fault Ace was born with his abilities…" Rouge teared up a bit before she shook her head and shrugged her husband's hand off her shoulder.

"It is just as much my fault, _xodó_. If I had not messed around with those illegal things when **I** was young…or have been so involved with so many other _Dotado_ (gifted)…"

Both adults sighed and shared a light kiss of shared pain.

"Well we can be glad that it manifested so early…we could at least help him develop coping mechanisms…and he only has one _dom_ (ability)…most double _Dotado_ parented children end up with two or more…" Roger tried to make them both feel a bit lighter, but it didn't do much. It just reminded them that it could still get worse for their son.

"Well, let us…let us hope that his final year at Grand Line will bring him some…some _Dotado_ friends…"

Ace hated the Grand Line.

It was a fancy school, for fancy kids, with their fancy parents, and their fancy powers, and their **stupid** beliefs.

Everyone there was a _Dotado_ or was related to one. They all had stories of cool super heroes, and magical men and women who started out as magical boys and girls. It was annoying how utterly **naïve** they all were, only thinking about the mainstream concept of their _dom_.

No one there had a power they couldn't turn on or off.

Ace hated it.

He was born with a _dom_. Like most "supers" as the _falantes de inglês_ (English speakers) called it. But unlike most "supers" he had a power more like the "gifts" that magical people got, from a magical animal, mentor, or otherwise.

Empathy was a curse.

Sure having the **normal** amount of it was fine. Being able to understand others was a grand skill to have, but not when it was enhanced.

Ace could **feel** what others felt, could feel it as if it was his own emotion and that scared him a lot. How much of his emotions were actually determined by the people around him?

Wearing layers helped because the empathy was **worse** when skin contact was initiated or held, he could feel it more when his skin was exposed to the air that touched others.

It was a curse, and no one could tell him any different.

Grand Line was also horrible because it was _uma escola de Inglês_ (an English school)! Ace didn't start learning _Inglês_ until he was **fifteen**. He had barely two years under his belt, so other people were hard to understand.

Slang was hell.

It might be why he had so few _conhecidos_ (acquaintances).

That or the fact that Ace never showed up to Grand Line without covering every single bit of his skin. His empathy was muted a bit more when no skin was showing, and that made him the _monstro_ (monster) of the school.

Ace might not understand _Inglês_ as well as his peers did, but he knew enough to know that that was what people called him. The Monster.

Why else would he hide his body? If he wasn't a _monstro_?

Shaking his head, Ace continued walking to school.

The _lugar terrível_ (dreadful place) was well over a forty-five minute walk, but Ace wouldn't chance being in an enclosed metal tube with so many people and their emotions just for a shorter commute. Besides, the walk kept him healthy and gave him time to prepare for the long day of emotions that weren't his.

A loud honking shocked Ace out of his musings and he jumped out of the road just in time to see a bright blue corvette zoom past, the blond passenger waving apologetically.

Ace could feel his cheeks lighting up in a blush as he recognized the passenger and the driver.

Sabo Outlook and Marco Newgate.

The Blue Gentleman and the Phoenix.

The most well-known superhero and magical "boy" currently in existence. The strongest fighters in the war on villains. The smartest pair in school. The best working duo in the school. The power couple.

Everyone knew them. Knew their names, their _dom_ , their relationship…they were everywhere.

And they were the reason why Ace sometimes wished he wasn't so socially stupid. He would give anything to be able to hold a conversation with either of them, that didn't start with "here" and end with "thank you".

Even that was a bit much for him. His face would heat and he'd have a hard time trying to figure out why he couldn't say more than a single word without feeling more tongue tied than normal. _Mãe_ would call it a _quedinha_ (crush), but _velho_ would probably call it _saudades_ (the longing feeling****).

Ace called it the only bright point in his dark life. The two always had very wholesome emotions, not pressing, or dark, or obsessive, but very light and nice to experience. Not to mention the absolute love they felt towards each other was something to be admired.

The only people Ace had ever felt that much love in were his own parents, who loved each other and him so much it was a bit pressing.

" _Pare com isso, feio. Eles estão felizes. Ninguém precisa de você._ (Stop it, ugly. They are happy. No one needs you.)" He whispered to himself quietly, trudging on towards the school with a dark cloud over his head.

His empathy was also weak, not that he thought about it. He could feel other people's emotions to a severe extent, but he couldn't do anything with that. If anything it hindered him more than it was useful. He'd be a horrible super hero. Which was mostly why he wasn't one.

Besides people were…not worth his time. They didn't understand, no one understood. No one takes time from focusing on themselves to see how those around them suffer.

But Ace did. He always did. He didn't have a choice.

Ace could feel his jaw start to tremble and immediately started to think about something unrelated. About _mãe_ and her cooking, and about Luffy and how he was coming to visit soon, bringing with him his magical boyfriend.

He was mixed about that last part. Ace was unsure if he wanted to feel happy for Luffy finding someone to focus on him, or angry that someone would dare date his precious cousin, his _maninho_ (baby bro), without asking him if it was okay.

But he'd meet the _ladrão_ (thief) soon enough and he would be able to tell whether or not the man was enough for his super hero _maninho_.

Shaking his head lightly, missing the feeling of his hair tickling his skin, Ace refocused on trying to ignore all the foreign emotions that would bombard him.

True enough, once he was a few minutes from the private campus, an overwhelming excitement pressed in on Ace's brain. He flinched and touched his covered temple with his leathered hand. Closing his eyes and breathing into the face mask that was laced with passionflower, chamomile, and ashwagandha.

 _Mãe_ was a genius when it came to forcing calm on her son, and every night she soaked his face masks in the mixture, hoping to ease Ace's discomfort at school.

" _Outro dia, outra dor. Outro dia, outra dor, Ace_. (Another day, another pain. Another day, another pain, Ace.)" The empathetic teenager started chant to himself as he walked up the steps to the gigantic school building.

His classroom wasn't too far off from the front of the building, and Ace was early enough that there was no one in it. So he headed straight there, finding it easier to keep out all the foreign feelings when he could focus on pushing them out one person at a time.

Ace was hardly surprised when Dadan greeted him at the door, in her own way. She was his homeroom and "Magical" History professor, which was shocking with how truly gruff she is. Surprisingly she knew magical history very well, which was why she taught the honors class.

Dadan was only one of two people who knew Ace's _dom_. Her and the principal, one Edward Newgate, or Whitebeard as he prefers. Also, Marco the Phoenix's adopted father. He was pretty nice as far as _falantes de inglês_ (English speakers) went.

"Your seat is in the back, you brat. Don't interrupt class if you need to leave. Same rules as always." Dadan's voice was very different from _a tom de mãe_ (mom's voice). Not a light lilt, but deeper and more similar to gravel than his mother's.

" _Obrigado, velha bruxa_. (Thank you, old hag.)" Ace felt his mouth twitch into a smirk as his voice was muffled by the cloth.

The fluffy red-head scowled at him and pointed to the back left desk, the one along the wall that had the door into the class. At least if he had to sneak out to re-center himself, he could do so relatively stealthily.

"Stop speaking Portuguese in here, you brat. Your mom wants you to practice English. I may understand you well enough, but you can't make friends if others don't know what you're saying." She turned to her desk and started organizing papers, but even if she was looking at Ace she would not have seen his scowl.

"Thanks I say. _Inglês_ not simple." Ace was able to get enough of a sentence out. And Dadan laughed loudly, as she often did.

"Thanks I **said** , you brat. And no, it isn't. Better than learning Chinese though, ain't it."

Shuffling to his seat, Ace scowled deeper, trying to understand the end of Dadan's sentence. The woman knew he had difficulties with slang, and **contractions** but she used them anyway.

"If no contractions, maybe easier."

"Missing a few verbs there."

"Fuck it."

"HAHAHAHAHA. You sure learned the curses fast enough, _moleque atrevido_ (cheeky brat)." Ace smirked a bit at that and couldn't say otherwise. His father liked to curse in _Inglês_ when Ace was younger so of course he learned them faster.

" _Culpa do pai, velha bruxa_. (Blame dad, old hag.)"

The onslaught of a wave of annoyance and hate stopped their conversation entirely as Ace placed a hand on his head, slowly sitting in his desk.

It was the _valentão_ (bully).

Ace never learned his name, Dadan never told him, and he never wanted to know. All he knew was that the guy had some sort of hate against Ace or something else negative and tried everything he could to embarrass him.

The _valentão_ wasn't very good at it. He came up with some interesting ideas, but they never did anything to Ace, not like they would to a **normal** person.

The anger and annoyance swiftly changed to sadistic glee that Ace was very well attuned to.

"Hey freak. Another day of trying to imitate Darth Vader? Don't you ever get tired of being such a nerd?" he meant it to be hurtful, but there was nothing wrong with dressing as a favorite character. But maybe only Darth Vader after he half redeemed himself with Luke…he wasn't a nice man before that. Ooh or maybe Anakin? He was relatively good before he turned into a paranoid nut.

Apparently facing the _valentão_ without moving was the equivalent of staring blankly. At least to the outside people, Ace honestly just zoned.

"Don't stare at me with that face of yours! PRICK!"

"Oi. Sit the fuck down you brat. Stop yelling in my classroom." Dadan whirled around and hissed at the boy. She wouldn't let out to anyone that she was a 'friend' to Ace and his family, but she would do her best to divert attention.

The _valentão_ let out a squeak and sat down in his chair towards the middle of the classroom. No one was not afraid of Dadan. Except Ace…and Sabo and Marco…but they were different. They weren't scared of anyone.

Ace's face heated up and he slammed his head onto his desk, taking his mind off of the dreamy couple by cycling outside emotions through his mind then back out again.

The annoyance and hatred turned into joy and stress and anxiety and hope and desire and those weird feelings that Ace hated putting terms to because they were gross and unwanted.

He had to work to stifle the groan that wanted to come out as the overflow of emotions made his literal body shake. Ace was never so glad that everyone tended to ignore him than when he has issues controlling his empathy.

Luckily, the overwhelming feeling of love and adoration started to block out all of the others and now Ace had to stop himself from sighing happily at the feeling. He really would like to let it out, but that was counterproductive to everything he was practicing.

So he stayed quiet, but lifted his head to watch as the power couple entered the classroom.

They really did match well. Together. And not with him. Just each other.

As it should be.

Sabo loved the Grand Line.

His boyfriend was there. His boyfriend's father was the headmaster. He had a nice chunk of really good friends. He could more or less do as he pleased because of his status. The school didn't have any problems so Sabo could relax for once, when he was normally on edge and ready to transform at any given moment.

The blonde's life had really changed ever since he accepted his hat.

Like most Magical Children, he was given an easy to hide item that helped him to transform into a hero to protect innocents. His was given to him by a monkey named Lufay, and although the magical animal has long since moved on to find new heroes, his memory lives strong in Sabo.

And so does his top hat pin that turns him into the Blue Gentleman.

Enhanced strength, increased healing, faster processing, and a rather snazzy outfit. It all combined to make Sabo into one of the most well-known Magical Children of his generation. And it came with a love interest.

Marco Newgate. Marco the Phoenix.

Other than becoming the Blue Gentleman, he was the best thing to ever happen to the wayward son of a city noble.

Being an amazing Magical Child helped eased the way for the fact that he was one of the few Magic Children of his generation. It was rare that there were any new generations of Magical Children these days. Most came about because their magical item was passed down from a parent.

Not Sabo.

His parents were _normals._ They didn't have hero powers and they didn't have a magical item, and they **liked** it that way. The two wanted Sabo to follow in their footsteps, to be _normal_ and be proud that they were the ones being saved all the time.

Sabo didn't want that life. He wanted to help, wanted to do some good in the world. Which was how Lufay found him in the first place.

As one of the few magical animals still alive with magic items, Lufay tried to find a new Magical Child at least every five years. He found Sabo when the blond was eleven, a little over six years ago. The monkey had departed sometime after the Magic Child's third year as the Blue Gentleman, and right after Sabo found Marco.

Marco and Sabo didn't mesh right away, as was common when it came to Magic Children and heroes. But after a year of fighting the same villains? They sort of fell into their friendship and then their relationship, and Sabo would really not have it any other way.

"Hey, Goggles. You're zoning out on me again."

Sabo smiled brightly as Marco's rough voice played around in his ears. The dulcet tones really just made the shorter blond incredibly happy. It was nice to have a happy life after his childhood with the most unsupportive parents in the world.

"Oh yeah, Beaky? Prove it!" Sabo laughed as he danced out of the reaching arms that were aiming to grab him around the waist.

Thus began a chase that started almost every morning, Sabo or Marco saying something ridiculously witty, the other responding, and then one chasing after the other. It was a nice routine for both blonds as it solidified in them the fact that they were at school, a place where they didn't have to be their personas.

"Oioi! Love birds! Knock it off! Some of us are tryin' ta wolk hea!" hearing the badly done Boston accent, both Sabo and Marco stopped their chase and stared back at Marco's adopted brother, Thatch.

Off red hair, a bright white blazer and matching pants, the beginnings of a goatee, and a lovely man hanging off his arm; Thatch always did look the same.

"Your Boston accent is deplorable, yoi. Save it for people who don't know you so well." Marco deadpanned, taking the moment of stillness to wrap Sabo up in a bear hug.

A squeal from the scarred blond prompted laughter from everyone else.

Marco smiled almost too widely when he was faced with Sabo's pouting face, he always thought it was adorable no matter how hard his boyfriend tried to prove otherwise.

Sensing a moment of distractedness, Sabo took advantage and planted his lips right onto Marco's unmoving one. While Marco might have been surprised, he didn't waste any time thinking about it and returned the gesture with his own.

"Oh gross. Izooooouuuu make them stoooop."

The two blonds separated and looked at Thatch as he hid his face into the neck of his own boyfriend, smiling when the beautiful man smiled fondly before smacking the red-head.

"You are just as gross, darling, so you can't say shit."

Thatch puffed up his cheeks as he looked his man in the eye, but Izou was pretty much immune from the childishness and just gave him a raised eyebrow in return.

"Hey, speaking of odd phenomena, did anyone else hear anything about a visiting super hero and magical?" Sabo piped up, wiggling a little to signify to Marco that he'd like to be released. The other blond ignored him and instead buried his head into the back of Sabo's neck.

A sigh was released but he did nothing further to try and shake off his boyfriend, so Sabo obviously didn't mind that much.

Izou tilted his head to the side and shook out his long sleeved shirt, scowling when he remembered he wasn't wearing his normal kimono because of school rules. Who had a rule about kimonos being forbidden anyway? Especially his own **father**.

"I want to say I did. But I honestly cannot remember with everything else we have been dealing with because of the start of the school year. Our **last** school year."

"Oh yeah! The end is finally here! Gonna graduate with my main man, and my brother and **his** man and everything will be GREAT! SOCIETY HERE WE COME!" Thatch was super excited to say the least, causing Marco and Sabo to chuckle as Izou let out a sigh and grabbed the red-head by his ear.

"Owowowowow. BABE!"

"Don't 'babe' me, you moron. Let's just get to class before anyone else sees you and your ridiculousness."

Marco and Sabo watched the two until they entered the school grounds from the rather secluded outside eating area they were in. Thatch's ow's could be heard the whole time.

Finally releasing his boyfriend, Marco took Sabo's hand in his own and smiled widely again, a light blush dusting the scarred blonde's cheeks as he did so. The two started following in the steps of their friends, not really bothering to fill their silence. They were perfectly fine without words.

It was surprising that they were in the same class once again, the same room, the same teacher, the same students, it was almost as if they knew someone who could make it so…

Sabo really liked their class from last year. They knew everyone and not a single one of them was rude, or unaccepting, or anything. One complaint bubbled in his mind but it was one he'd never acted on or even considered acting on.

One weird kid in the back that never showed their face or their body isn't a reason to change around a whole classroom after all. Some Asse kid or something. Probably the one person in the room that Sabo never properly learned the name of.

But then they never had a conversation, not even speaking beyond a "here" or a "thank you", so it didn't really mean anything. And their teacher wasn't a fan of group projects anyway, so Sabo never truly had the chance to ask.

He must have had a thinking look on his face again, because Marco squeezed his hand right before they reached the door to their classroom.

Smiling up at his boyfriend, Sabo tugged their joint hands lightly and couldn't help but laugh when Marco listened and leaned down for a kiss. See? No words needed.

Entering the room, the two blonds were greeted by their perpetually irritated teacher, and a practically full classroom. Sabo was about to look for their seats when Ms. Dadan spoke up and interrupted him.

"Outlook, left row, seat five. Newgate, second left row, seat five. Welcome back."

Short and succinct as always, but it was something Sabo learned to appreciate after he heard tales about Thatch and Izou's homeroom teacher. Anything was better than a man who spent more time talking about his husband and his almost-kid and his weekend plans. Sabo actually **liked** learning.

But his happy mood had to be thrown off track by something, it always did. Rarely could he stay completely content for more than an hour, and this jerking force came from the figure in the seat behind Sabo's.

That weird kid.

He was **completely** covered, as always. Goggles, face mask, beanie, long sleeves, gloves, long pants, boots, the works. All varying shades of no color. It was half creepy. Mostly weird though.

An inaudible sigh, and another squeeze from Marco and Sabo started heading towards his seat, smile still in place.

Before he sat down though, he gave a bright smile to the weirdo and spoke his normally greeting.

"Good morning. I hope we have a good year again this year."

Sabo waited patiently for a response, maybe he could put a specific voice pattern down in his notes, but the figure just nodded, before staying tilted down.

All he could do was shrug and sit in his own seat, smiling at Marco who tried to see if they could still hold hands across the aisle. They couldn't.

The pout on his face was enough for Sabo to wish they could have skipped class and spent more time together, but they get plenty already and school is important. Besides…anything to keep the school from calling his "parents" and requiring he **talk** to them.

Sabo could not **wait** to move in with the Newgate's…he just wished the courts could speed that process up a bit.

"Marco Newgate!"

Said blond jolted in surprise, no longer looking at Sabo but now at Ms. Dadan and her angry face. Sheepishly, Marco gave out a loud "Here, yoi" and then started digging in his backpack for his supplies.

"Sabo Outlook."

Ms. Dadan spoke a bit quieter this time, but Sabo still wanted to rub his ear at the volume…hey maybe roll call will be a good time to actually learn the weirdo's name!

"Here!" He spoke happily, excited at the prospect of learning something he didn't already know, after all that was the purpose of school right? Learning new things?

"Ace D. Portgas."

Huh. Odd name, but Sabo happily scribbled it down in his notebook reserved for statistics about his classmates, better to know things than not. Besides, the kid had a serious "future villain" vibe going on and as the Blue Gentleman, he should keep his eyes on those.

"Aqui (Here)."

The voice was barely there, but Sabo heard it, and he wanted to give "Ace" an odd look. Who spoke Spanish in class? Least of all in a class where everyone spoke _English_. Was the kid trying to stick out like a sore thumb?

Ms. Dadan gave a harsh glare to the fully covered weirdo, and while Sabo thought that would be enough for him to repeat his answer in English, he stayed quiet.

Sabo definitely needed to keep an eye out for that one.

 **TBC**

 **Well? What do you think? I WANNA KNOOOOOOOWWWW**

 **Also I now have a tumblr to answer questions/comments/concerns, and maybe take a few requests if I'm not too terribly busy~ it's called thatonefanficwriternooneknows, there should be a link on my Bio that HOPEFULLY works** **swing me a visit~**

 **Have a lovely day y'all~**

 **Question: Does this translation style work for y'all? OR should I switch to a key at the bottom/top so it doesn't interrupt the flow?**


	2. A Reunião

**HAH HA! I'm back! With this story in particular~ you might have noticed that I renamed it, it's gonna stay this name this time, I promise!**

 **Funny story: this is not the chapter 2 I started writing at the beginning of this week. I wrote 2.7ishk of this one scene that I thought would be a GREAT start to chapter 2 only to realize I needed some space between the end of chapter 1 and chapter 2….so original chapter 2 became chapter 3 :P**

 **I have no idea when I'll finish the rest of chapter 3 but it'll hopefully be sometime within the next month or so?**

 **SCHOOL IS BUSY SO WHO EVEN KNOWS ANYMORE?**

 **ONWARDS!**

Sabo let out a huge yawn and stretched his arms above his head, leaning to the left and right to get all the kinks out of his back. Classes being an hour and a half are tough on his back.

A twinge from his right side caused Sabo to stop stretching and practically slam his head on the desk. The villain from yesterday was really hard on him physically; especially since he didn't have Marco, Phoenix, as back up because the stupid blond was helping his father get ready for school today.

He let a light whine escape his lips as he looked to his left to give Marco his best puppy dog eyes. Of course the stupid peacock was just smirking at him with that infernal "haha" look.

"Come on, Sabo. Stretch your legs before the next teacher comes, yoi." At least his boyfriend was still thoughtful when he was being all I-told-you-so.

So what if Marco said some of his older brothers would be out patrolling so Phoenix and Blue Gentleman could have the night before their first day of school off? Sabo did **everything** to get out of his house and Marco knew that.

"You should have invited me over. You know I would have helped with things." Sabo turned in his seat as he spoke, facing the now standing Marco who had a wide smile on his face.

"Help with things my ass, yoi. You would have distracted me the whole time and you know it." Marco placed one hand on Sabo's desk and the other on his chair and leaned over, practically looming over the slightly younger blond.

Their faces were a few centimeters apart and a wide smile spread across Sabo's face as he decided to mess with his boyfriend a little bit.

"Oh? Distract you how, exactly?" he moves slightly closer to the standing blond and had to keep his hands to himself as Marco matched his movement.

The Magical Boy could feel puffs of the hero's breath on his lips and instead of letting the teasing continue, Sabo closes the distance and kisses his boyfriend lightly.

For once Sabo didn't try to control the whole action and just relaxed, letting Marco wrap a hand around his neck to deepen the kiss.

Unfortunately it only lasted a few moments, removing and replacing mouths over and over but not letting it go much further than that. They WERE in class after all.

Both blonds would have loved to continue kissing the whole fifteen minute break for the teacher change, but they were interrupted by someone they weren't expecting at all.

The strange kid behind Sabo, _Ace_ , suddenly slammed his head on his desk and placed both gloved hands on either side of his down facing face.

Sabo had pulled away from Marco at the noise and looked over to the left at the dude with his head on the table. His right eyebrow rose as he watched _Ace_ rub his head with gloved fingers.

His mouth opened shortly after, about to as what the hell this guy's problem was when another classmate stopped him via distraction.

"Saboooooooo!"

The blond lurched forward in his chair, head slamming into Marco's stomach as he was run into from behind. Still Sabo couldn't stop the wide smile that spreads across his face.

"Good morning, Koala."

The orange haired girl laughed as she bounced around to the front of Sabo's desk, plopping her butt right on his desk face.

Sabo totally didn't mind, he hadn't seen his best friend in over a MONTH because she was on vacation with her guardian. Well vacation kind of pushed it, they only went to the town over to visit her guardian's son but that was beside the point.

"It is a good morning isn't it?! Hey! Why didn't you two stay hi when you came in?!" her light pink lips pursed and her brows furrowed as she leaned closer to Sabo's face.

Her chest was huge in the pink shirt she chose to wear today but that wasn't something he paid too much attention to.

"We came in a bit late if you didn't notice." Sabo tried to placate her but she just crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks.

"Yeah because you two were too busy being lovey dovey I bet!"

Sabo smiled widely at that and laced his fingers with Marco's, laughing at the light pink that spread across his cheeks. So cute.

"Anyway. How was your trip, yoi?"

If anything Sabo knew his boyfriend was good at shifting subjects and he almost laughed out loud as Koala grabbed on to the hook and took the bait.

Dark blue eyes sparkled as she clasped both hands under her chin, sighing lightly with a faraway look in her eyes.

"Oh it was amazing, Marco! The air of everything over there is so much heavier than here! Mr. Dragon's hometown is practically riddled with bad guys and his son is the HERO that takes care of it all~!" She wiggled on the desk as she closed her eyes and placed her hands on her flushed cheeks.

Sabo did chuckle at this point; his best friend LOVED cities that she could possibly move to, and save. Not to mention the shorter blond had some insider knowledge as to why this city interested his best friend so much.

"Oh? And how did things go with that older woman?" Sabo smirked shyly as Koala's cheeks reddened and she puffed them up again.

"Turns out that she was MARRIED!"

The blond's face fell and he was about to apologize when the orange haired girl spoke again.

"And then there was a cute blue haired non-powered girl but SHE has a girlfriend that can manipulate WEATHER!"

Sabo instantly thought he was going to listen to Koala complain about the unfairness when she went completely different direction.

"How cool is that?! WEATHER MANIPULATION! All the possibilities to save people!"

The metaphorical hearts in her eyes were enormous and Sabo couldn't help but laugh. Trust his best friend to not get down about taken ladies and to instead crush on them both.

Another smack from the seat behind Sabo interrupted his thoughts, again, and he almost wanted to yell at _Ace_ but when he looked to the side he was surprised by a strip of visible skin.

On the back of his neck, black hair was visible as it tickled dark tan skin. Sabo started leaning a bit closer to get a better look, when a gloved hand slammed over the area and another pulled the beanie back down to cover the visible area back up.

He frowned and ignored his boyfriend and best friend as he opened his mouth to ask _Ace_ why he was always covered head to toe. The curiosity was killing him.

Of course, outside forces had different ideas and the door to the classroom slammed open revealing a red-haired older man with three scars running through his left eye.

Oh shit.

Sabo had heard about this teacher. He was Thatch and Izou's homeroom after all.

Mr. Shanks.

"Good morning, my adorable seniors! My name is Shanks and I don't believe any of you have had the pleasure of my teaching! How fantastic!" he was definitely as loud as Thatch said he was…maybe he wasn't as obsessed with his almost kid as Izou said he was…

"Now how about you all get seated while I tell you a bit about me?!"

Sabo frowned as he accepted a kiss on the cheek from Koala before she headed over to her desk, just a seat apart from Marco's. The hero, on the other hand, placed a chaste kiss on the Magical Boy's lips before he moved back to his seat. He couldn't stop the scowl from forming on his face as his hand slipped from his boyfriend's.

"Now. You all know my name is Shanks. I actually live a town over but I work here as a favor to the old man. I'm happily married to my better half, Benn Beckman, who also works here. Our boyfriend, Mihawk, stays in our town with his sword training dojo. We have a practically adopted hero son whose biological father lives here to help out his nephew. Aaaaaanddd yeah that's pretty much it."

There was a wide smile stretching across his face as he seemed to take joy in the shocked looks on every single person's face. Except _Ace,_ because of the covered face and all.

"Any questions?!"

"Yeah! What are you teaching?!" a kid yelled out from the front left of the classroom and Sabo shook his head in annoyance at the outburst.

"GOOD QUESTION, YOUNG SENIOR WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER THAN SHOUTING OUT WITHOUT A RAISED HAND!" Mr. Shanks slammed his hands on his desk and looked at the kid with wide eyes and a really wide smile.

The teacher stayed like that for quite a while, smiling widely with his wide eyes locked on the student for pretty much an uncomfortable amount of time. Sabo had to smile to himself, sure the teacher was loud but he seemed pretty funny so far.

"AND!" he started suddenly, causing the students in front of the blond to jump in surprise.

"In a fit of complete and utter irony for a think later action now kinda guy, I teach Battle Tactics!"

Sabo chanced a glance over to Marco as Mr. Shanks started setting up for his lesson of the day, whipping out a few different colored whiteboard markers out of his bag.

The Magical Boy wasn't expecting the bright focused eyes and the wide smile stretched across his face, hand tightly holding a pen, ready to take notes. Sabo really shouldn't have been surprised, Phoenix was such a tactical genius that it made sense this was the going to be his favorite class.

Glancing back up at the red-haired teacher, Sabo quickly reached across the aisle and rapped lightly on the wooden surface of the desk face.

Marco looked over at him with wide eyes and a raised brow, glancing from him to the teacher in quick succession. Sabo just smiled and leaned a bit further across until he was just close enough to pull Marco down by his collar and give him a nice big kiss on the lips.

He righted himself shortly afterwards, making it look like he hadn't moved at all when Mr. Shanks turned around to address the class. The questioning look from the older blond simply made Sabo's smile all the wider.

Looking around to make sure no one was paying attention, Sabo quickly mouthed out "I love you" before turning back to his own notebook and returning his attention to the teacher.

Out of the corner of his eye he couldn't help but notice the bright red spreading across his normally more stoic boyfriend.

School was still as great as ever.

 **-TODAY THERE WAS A FORECAST FOR A LINE! AND TIS WAS!-**

Ace was not expecting to see Shanks teaching his class. He didn't expect the introduction that mentioned him. He didn't expect Benn to show up for the General Education class as the _professor_ *. He didn't expect for Sabo fucking Outlook to be FRIENDS with _tio's_ (uncle's) charge.

How were all these _coincidências_ (coincidences) happening to him…

Three. There were three _momentos_ … **moments** _ **…**_ during class where he almost had to leave class because of the headaches.

And two of them were because of the two blonds that sat in front of him in class.

He shook his head and leaned over his desk, trying to cycle through all of the excitement, happiness, stress, anxiety that was going on in the room around him.

Lunch time was his own personal hell and Ace was beyond glad that Tuesday and Thursday classes didn't have such a slot due to extended class hours. He would have much preferred being home, sparring with _meu velho_ , eating the food that _mãe_ prepared, and being able to have conversations in _Português_.

Homeschooling really was a better option for him.

Not to mention that schools had this strange idea that _almoço_ (lunch) could be compacted into a short time period of only thirty minutes. _Almoço_ is supposed to be leisurely, with enough time to eat all three courses.

But no, _mãe_ had to pack smaller versions of what they would normally have because there wasn't enough time for him to eat everything at the proper pace.

It was irritating to say the least.

A sudden twinge of panic followed by a deep heavy cloud of _alegria_ (glee) had Ace looking up. _Valentão_ was cornering a small looking student into a wall. Of course no one else was looking, all too self-involved in their own little worlds, so Ace took a deep breath to center himself again and flush everything back out and stood.

Ace was always quiet in school. He stayed after classes ended often enough to get some _Inglês_ help from Dadan, and he was a good student but he never spoke in class. Speaking _Inglês atrapalhado_ (messy English) made other students laugh at him.

After the first week of that last year Ace had learned that _lição_ … **lesson**. _Ah, Meu Deus_ (Oh my god), he would figure it out soon enough.

But that did not mean that Ace didn't stick up for what he knew was right. The small student was terrified of whatever _valentão_ was saying to them and he was taking glee in that fear.

Ace wouldn't stand for it.

Hesitantly but confidently he walked over to the pair, not moving his head as he glanced from side to side to see if anyone else had possibly noticed what was going on by now.

Still Ace was disappointed by the students of this school. While preaching good and justice and rights, they never stopped to look at what was going on right under their noses. _Hipócritas_ , hypocrites, the lot of them.

Idly he noticed that neither of the two blonds that sat in front of him were in the room, and they always had such lovely emotions, perhaps they were the exclusions to the veil of rightness.

The closer Ace moved, the more overwhelmed he felt by the small students fear. They were well and truly in a dark place thanks to the asshole. He closed his eyes briefly, imagining a water wheel taking in emotions and then sending them back out, before he reached out his gloved hand and placed it on the offender's shoulder.

Neither party was quite expecting the action. Ace because it came with a sudden rush of vengeful enjoyment, hate, and, and something that curdled the _caldo verde_ ** his mother had made him for _almoço_.

And of course _valentão_ was simply surprised by the sudden touch.

He whipped around so fast and gave Ace a glare that probably would have scared anyone else, but Ace knew this boy. He was a _valentão_ , yes, but he was _fraco_ (weak) and had no real power.

"What the hell do **you** want, you masked freak."

See this goes back to the whole silence thing. Ace didn't talk at school, even when he was standing up to _valentão_ , he would just stare at him until something else came up or the boy got unnerved and slunk away.

"Don't look at me like that, monster! This ain't none of your business!" There was that word again, the same one that Dadan used earlier, and for the life of him Ace had no idea at all what it could mean.

So Ace just left his hand on the shoulder, gripping a little tighter despite the cramping in his stomach getting worse. _Outro dia, outra dor_ was more than just a way for Ace to get through the day. It was a _lembrete_ (reminder) that his ability was _dolorosa_ , **painful** , that it would continue to be painful, and he couldn't change that.

Gritting his teeth behind his facemask, Ace moved his head so he looked like he was looking at the poor small student and jerked his head back. The student nodded frantically and ran for the door, running to the right and down the hall to the _calouros_ (freshmen) classes.

Figures _valentão_ would have to pick on someone so much younger than he was. _Vergonhoso_ (disgraceful).

"You fucking shit! How dare you?! I was having a conversation with that chick!" _Valentão_ sounded angry but the fuzzing feeling in Ace's head told him that he was confused as well. The empath really didn't understand why _valentão_ would be confused, Ace stopped him all the time.

"Listen you unloved piece of useless, stop getting in my fucking way. You ain't doin' nothin' but pissing me the fuck off, and people normally don't fucking like that." His feelings stayed the same the entire time _valentão_ spoke, so Ace just tilted his head to the side.

For all intents and purposes, Ace was fucking worried.

He always tried to stay out of attention, he was already the _monstro_ , MONSTER, of the school, he didn't want people to think of him as a _valentão_ as well.

Ace couldn't control his flinch when the other student suddenly wrapped his arm around his covered neck. The fuzziness in his head shifted all to one side as another bout of pain echoed from the other, his stomach was really trying to cave in on itself, and Ace had to fight the nausea that was slowly making its way up his throat.

"You're on my fucking radar now, you shitfaced punk. You think you did that ugly chick a favor but you just painted a giant fucking target on your wimpy fucking back. Think twice before you go anywhere you shit stain."

 _Valentão_ curled his lips in such a way that had Ace wanting to punch him right in his _boca_ , his mouth stupid, but a deep breath of the herbal mixture calmed him down as it always did.

Within seconds Ace had ducked out of the unwanted hold and glared at the offender, rolling his head slightly as the churning of his stomach turned into floating bubbles instead, and his head whipped to the door.

Backing away from _valentão_ whose glare was getting more and more intense, Ace quickly placed himself to the side of the door, so he could avoid the two students entering the room and still leave to run to the bathroom.

The unwanted touching from the…revolting boy couldn't be chased away by the feelings of the most popular couple in school. Despite how much the heat rushing through his limbs had made Ace just a little bit lighter.

" _Não, feio. Deixa elas em paz._ (No, ugly. Leave it alone.)" Ace muttered to himself, barely making much of a sound and more breathing the words out than actually speaking.

The door opened the other way, and Ace pressed back against the wall as it hid _valentão_ from view but brought in the perfect picture of the two blonds walking hand in hand.

The bubbles in his stomach started to multiply and the fuzziness and pain in his head transformed into a haze that he was quite familiar with after a year of sharing a class with the love birds.

Ace's goggles started to fog up, and he shook his head, missing the feel of his bangs swishing against his cheek, trying to stop the tears from welling up before they made it…impossible to see.

As soon as there was enough space to do so, Ace slid through the door, behind the _casal_ (couple). A rush of tingling up his spine signified that he had accidently touched one of them, and honestly he didn't particularly care which it was.

A sharp jab of feathers on his back was the only indicator that he wasn't as invisible as he wanted to be…

Luckily the _banheiro_ …the **bathroom** , wasn't that far away from the classroom this time, so Ace reached it in no time at all.

A loud dinging rang through the hallway signaling the end of _almoço_ and the beginning of the last class of the day. Which also meant no one in their right mind would be in the **bathroom**.

So he wasted no time in slamming the door open and rushing for the handicapped stall, he counted right?

The empath waited until the door was locked before he almost ripped his mask while pulling it down and throwing himself over the toilet.

Black tiles were…repugnant, but Ace was more focused on his _almoço_ making its way out of his…mouth. After the first wave, he pushed his goggles up so the streams of tears could properly pour down his cheeks and not fog them up too much.

Ace's body was quivering and sweating as wave after wave of sick continued to escape him. He squeezed his eyes shut as the curdling in his stomach came back briefly.

Even with just his face showing, Ace could feel _valentão_ and his his _maldade_ (evilness).

Tremor followed tremor and it wasn't even _comida_ (food) anymore, just bile and acid that burned his throat as it left trails of pain in his body.

At the same time the bubbles and fluff from Sabo Outlook and Marco Newgate made the suffering a little more bearable. The feathers running down his spine he could do without, though.

It was understandable that students would be curious in class, they were learning new things after all.

During a pause of the waves of sickness, Ace could feel the rushing of cool water flowing through his veins. Starting at his eyes and circling down to his hands, feet, then back; the coolness soon overpowered all of the other feelings he had. Even the pain and curdling of his stomach.

There was a rapping noise from outside the stall and Ace lifted his head, looking at the stall door a little despondently, not fully processing exactly what the sound actually was.

" _Quem…quem é?_ (who…who is it?)" he spoke quietly, retching again shortly after, trying hard to hope that the noise wasn't from a _nativo_ , otherwise there would be more _fofoca_ (gossip) about him.

He really didn't need something like that going around.

" _Filo? Você tá doente? Sua cabeça dói de novo?_ (Godson? Are you sick? Does your head hurt again?)" The voice coming through the door was low and soothing, tickling his ears and combining with the cool rushing feeling to relax him again.

" _Pa-Padrinho_ …(Godfather…)"

" _To entrando, tudo bem_? (I'm coming in, alright?)"

Ace didn't get to okay his godfather, Shanks, before another wave of sick pushed through turning him back to the toilet seat.

Idly he flushed the toilet as the door opened and steps echoed across tiles toward the last stall that Ace was in.

" _Ok, ok, respira devagar, filho. Preciso que você se concentre apenas em mim, em mim e minhas emoções._ (Okay, okay, breathe slowly godson. Focus on me. Just me and my emotions.)"

Ace used the calming techniques _tio_ had taught him at the beginning of the summer; imagining a lake, unmoving water and quiet surroundins. Only the cool feeling of Shanks' perpetual calm.

" _Bom Bom. Vou abrir a porta, tudo bem_? (Good, good. I'm opening the stall, alright?)"

There was a clinking and a bit of rattling as Shanks used his _dom_ to slide the lock open.

Ace always thought Shanks' _dom_ didn't really fit him. Telekinesis would fit Benn better than the red-head…

" _Oh filho…Você vai supercar isso…é só mais um dos vários buracos que você vai encontrar pelo caminho!_ (Oh godson…You will get through this…this is just a minor hump in the road!" Ace could hear the smile as his godfather knelt down next to him and placed his bare hand on Ace's back, giving him something tangible to actually focus on.

"I- _eu não posso…eu preciso de mãe…e-eo pai…_ (I cannot…I need mom…and-and dad…)"

"I know… _Vamos leva-lo para casa_. (Let's get you home.)"

" _Mas o meu saco_ …(But my bag…)"

Ace could feel his lip tremble as he spoke, hands gripping onto Shanks' long sleeves, trying to keep his focus on the flow of calm…instead of the bubbles, feathers, and nausea from down the hall.

Benn is getting in, _afilhado_. You just focus on **me** okay?"

Closing grey eyes and a shallow nod was all that Ace could bring himself to do as Shanks took all of his weight.

His hand was shaking as he lifted it to replace his mask and goggles on his face, slightly dulling the different sensations fighting for his attention.

It had been a long time since Ace had been this weak and sick after someone's emotions overwhelmed him. Must be because _valentão_ touched him…

It scared the empath. Was he getting stronger? Getting sick because of a touch through TWO layers of clothes?

Maybe he should just do himself and everyone else a favor and never leave his house again.

"Don't…do not worry about the student's getting curious, okay? Atmos has them outside for the rest of the class for a show and tell today, so no one will see Benn grabbing your stuff."

Ace just nodded slowly against Shanks' chest, eyes closing as he felt the ice of Benn's cool collected emotions coming closer.

The cold was such a relief from the normal inferno, that the empath really couldn't stop himself from slackening and _deixar o sono vencê-lo_ (letting sleep overcome him).

 **-COME FORTH, MINE LINE! AND SEPARATE POV CHANGES!-**

Marco smiled as he walked through the hallway, his hand laced with his boyfriend's as they moved forward. Thatch and Izou were walking with them, the two tired of taking the bus after only this morning so they were catching a ride with the blonds; even though his brothers always complained about the lack of leg room in the backseat.

Glancing to his right, Marco smiled wider at the lovely profile picture Sabo presented. It was amazing how beautiful he was when his biological parents both looked like the unholy spawn of a meat grinder and an ogre…wait…that was mean to the ogre…

Anyway, they might not have gotten along and been border line antagonistic that first year they knew each other, but it was different now. Marco knew Sabo about as well as Sabo knew him, which was quite well all things considered.

Which means Marco can tell when Sabo is occupied by some sort of inquiry or mystery that he couldn't work out. And despite his friendly smile, now was one of those times when Sabo was preoccupied in his mind.

It was all good while they were walking, but once they reached the bright blue corvette that Marco has loved and taken care of since he was sixteen.

Hey a famous and well-loved father had to come with some kind of benefits right?

Anyway. Once they all entered the car Sabo's smile slid from his face and his serious thinking face was on. Marco sighed. It was never easy getting Sabo to share when he was contemplating.

"Hey…Ruffles…what's up with you, yoi?" Marco spoke lightly, despite the car being soundproof. A hero and a Magical Boy could never be too careful with their conversations after all.

" _Eh? Oh…solo ese niño que se encuentra detrás de mi, que no estaba en la última clase y no vi sus cosas en la habitación…Me pregunta bora dónde iba es todo…_ "

Marco sighed as he heard the fast paced Spanish come out of his boyfriend…the younger blond was smart as hell, but damn if his memory didn't need some serious work.

"Sabo…love…really, yoi? You know I can't understand fast Spanish…" Marco heard his brothers laughing at him and shot a glare at the back seat pair as he arrived at a stop light.

However he did get the pleasure of his boyfriend's face flushing red, and shift his bangs from covering his scar in embarrassment.

"I'm sorr-"

"Nuh uh." Marco cut his blond off fast, as he always did with such apologies.

"Don't apologize for speaking Spanish, just say it slower for me or give me the translation, ok, yoi?" A light smile flitted across the scarred blond's face as Marco stepped on the gas, in a hurry to get home.

"I was just curious about the kid who sits behind me in class. He wasn't in last class and I didn't see his stuff when we got back to the room, even though it was there when Atmos started class…" Sabo's voice was quiet but still stretched enough that Izou and Thatch heard it in the back seat.

"Woah woah, what kid?" Thatch's deep voice echoed with the volume level he chose.

Marco flinched and rubbed his ear as he worked to keep his focus on the road and not his overly loud brother in the back seat.

"You know, that one kid that doesn't show a lick of skin, yoi. Completely covered head to toe." He wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying and watched as a car in the other lane passed with a very shiny dangling thing hanging off of the rear view. Pretty…

He zoned a bit, thinking about the sparkling off of the shiny thing. It was almost rainbow with how it reflected the sunshine in so many different ways…

"Hey, pretty bird, did you see something shiny again?"

Sabo's tones made Marco roll his head and wiggle as the sound ran down his back and out of his feet…it should be illegal how good he sounds.

"So what if I did dammit. Shiny things are distracting for everyone, yoi!"

The older blond couldn't stop his lip from curling, Sabo never meant to be insulting with his pet names, but his brothers often over heard and used them to make fun of him…Izou was pretty considerate but when Thatch and Marco were at odds, the chef **always** used one of the affectionate names against him.

It wasn't overly fun.

Not to mention, Thatch was also the one who used his Phoenix nature against him. He couldn't help how he was born, dammit.

"It's alright, Tufts, I think it's cute."

When Marco looked over at his boyfriend to see if the younger blond was teasing, he was delighted to see the bright smile and pink cheeks displayed on his boyfriend.

The elder returned the smile with glee and chuckled as the other brought their joined hands up to his lips to lay a light kiss on Marco's knuckles.

"ANYWAY." Thatch spoke loudly as he coughed in a very fake manner, and looked at Marco through the rearview with a raised eyebrow, his left arm wrapped securely around Izou's waist.

"Actually, that kid, his name is Ace by the way, has dark tanned skin. Like he fell asleep out in the sun too long. Or maybe is from a country on the equator? Or just spends a lot of time outside? Darn, all of those are equally plausible."

Marco couldn't stop himself; he looked over at Sabo with side eyes, mouth hanging open as well. He knew his boyfriend was curious and observant but not to a point like this.

Finding out the kid's name was one thing, you just had to listen to the roll call close enough and there's that. But the kid had been in their class, their school, for a whole year already and no one knew what he looked like, not even a little bit.

ONE DAY.

ONE.

That was all it took for Sabo to find out his skin color…this was why Marco pitied anyone who held Sabo's curiosity for too long.

"Marco!"

At the shout said blond returned his attention to the road just in time to stop at a red stop light.

"Really, feather head?"

Thatch had his mouth open to release some more sass but Izou, the angel, slapped his hand over his boyfriend's mouth and glared at him until the other gave in and sat quietly.

"Sorry about that, yoi." Marco spoke sheepishly and squeezed Sabo's hand a bit tighter as the blond gave him a widening smile.

"It's okay, Beaky…I know I still surprise you every now and then…it's what keeps relationships fun after all~"

"So a dark skinned kid that sits behind you in class and doesn't show himself decided to play hooky, so what?" Izou never meant to sound condescending, but his voice always seemed to come out that way.

Luckily Sabo had known the man long enough to not care about it.

"I was just curious is all…he rushed by us really fast as we came back from eating lunch with you two. His stuff was still there before we left for Atmos' show and tell…I wonder if he came to get it himself or if he sent someone to get it…"

Marco could see Izou's skeptical look in the rear view and gave a silent laugh. At least the phoenix wasn't the only one to think that that wasn't the ONLY reason Sabo was interested in the strange kid.

"Come on, Googles. You and I both know that isn't the only reason, yoi." Marco smiled as he looked over at Sabo with a soft smile, softening his stare as the younger blond flushed darker.

" _Hablaba Español…_ " His voice was quiet but slow enough that Marco could actually catch all of the words and understand them this time.

"Really?!" It wasn't very rare for there to be bilingual students at Grand Line but Spanish wasn't a particularly common language there…and Pops always told him and Sabo when there were any new Spanish speakers. Simply so Sabo could make some more friends that he could speak to in the rapid fire language.

So why didn't Pops tell them about this one? When he only started at the school last year?

"Are you sure it was _Español_? Pops would have told us if there was another speaker, yoi."

"Maybe he didn't know…Marco…he answered Ms. Dadan with _aquí_. It sounded a bit off but I know Spanish when I hear it…"

Marco couldn't argue with that, it was a pretty convincing logic jump right there.

"Even though I can't speak a lick of Spanish, it seems pretty true to me!" Thatch was smiling wide from his location leaning on Izou's shoulder.

Sabo laughed lightly before he started fiddling with Marco's captive fingers, a habit he developed to stop his nervous nail biting. The older blond just let him be, he knew the younger would speak up when he collected his thoughts.

They were a few minutes from home when Sabo fully put together what he was trying to say.

"Do you think…maybe… _podría hablar con él mañana?_ " it was unlike the Magical Boy to be so reserved when it came to talking with new people, but as a self-taught Spanish speaker, he always worried about speaking to people that knew the language as well as he did.

"I don't see why you shouldn't talk to him tomorrow, yoi. He was very quiet in class; maybe he's just worried about his accent?" Marco turned into the lush neighborhood and frowned when he saw Mr. Sakazuki out in his yard again. He had nothing against one of the best ex-heroes in the city, but that man did NOT like his family.

Marco, Izou, Thatch, and Sabo all stared out of the car window at the Red Dog, making sure that he wouldn't send a ball of lava at the pretty corvette again. Izou was barely able to stop it last time…

"Yeah I think I'll talk to him tomorrow! Maybe a friend is all he needs to stop covering up his whole body…I wonder if there are bad scars and that's why he doesn't show his body…or a deformity of some kind…oh…perhaps he's hiding a tattoo from the administrators…or even…"

The blond hero couldn't help the wide smile that stretched from ear to ear as he listened to his boyfriend theorize about the strange kid in class.

Pulling up to the large garage that already had a few motorcycles parked in it, he tugged on Sabo's hand a bit to get him moving, then they both exited the car, not waiting for Izou and Thatch in the back.

Sabo kept on talking all the way in to the house, through taking off his shoes and his coat, and even as he greeted the rest of the family.

It was nice to see him so enthused about something not related to their extracurricular lives again.

"Heyyyyyyyyyyyyy, if it isn't my favorite older brother and his boyfriend! Whatcha talkin' about?!" Marco had to stop admiring his boyfriend when his youngest sibling, his only sister, tackled him from the side.

"What are you doing squirt. You stopped being small enough to jump on me when you hit thirteen, yoi." The blond forced out, wheezing as the little monkey climbed her way up to sit on his tall shoulders.

"Nonsense, you are the great and powerful PHOENIX! You can handle a little girl sitting on your shoulders, right 'Bo?"

Haruta the little shit was smiling widely down at the matching grin on the Magical Boy's face. Of course Sabo would be on the girl's side, he was ALWAYS on her side dammit.

"Of course, he works out enough that he should be able to hold you no problem, Haruta…" the girl smiled even wider and hugged around Marco's head to lean down and high five his TRAITOR boyfriend, when Sabo continued speaking.

"But I do think the jumping on could be toned down a bit, he ain't getting any younger ya know."

His little sister burst out laughing at that add on, and Marco just glared at his once thoughtful and loving boyfriend, and did nothing to stop Haruta from falling off of his shoulders. It wouldn't hurt her anyway, she'd just phase through the floor.

But Sabo being the goody goody that he was, caught her and gave her a hug as he swung her around, both giggling uncontrollably.

"I don't even know why I love you two." Marco groaned, slinking his way over to the kitchen where the rest of the family was pre-making some dinner before Pops got home.

"Figured it was you, Marco, we could hear Haruta and Sabo conspiring from here!" Rakuyo was smirking and looking right at him as he chopped up vegetable without watching what he was doing.

"Careful, brother, you're not me. You can't regenerate if you chop off a finger, yoi."

"Nonsense! I have been chopping vegetables so long that I get close to my skin but not once do I touch them! My ability is beyond measure!" Rakuyo was smiling so wide and being so over dramatic that Marco couldn't stop the chuckle escaping his mouth.

His siblings were all so ridiculous.

"MARCO YOU LOCKED US IN THE CAR! NAMUR SAW US ON HIS WAY IN AND YOU BETTER BE LUCKY HE HAD THE EXTRA KEY!"

The late afternoon passed rather quickly without any big incidents. Thatch had chased him around the house a bit for locking him and Izou in the car, but the hero knew his brother wasn't too upset. He got some quality time with his boyfriend without prying siblings around. And that was always a good thing in this house.

Sabo's father called his cellphone at some point, asking if the blond was ever going to be a normal heir for once or if he should just give the heirship to Stelly. Who was a perfectly normal child and didn't have any delusions of being some sort of protector of the common people.

However Sabo had long since figured out that by putting his phone on the table and ignoring Outlook the third, Haruta could scare the man away with her loud talking of various explosive devices she made today; which had a separate purpose as a conversation piece with Marco, who always enjoyed her attempts at making bombs, because he was always the one who had to detonate it.

Regeneration as an ability had a dual purpose of becoming the test dummy for all dangerous experiments and other such things.

Pops got home in the middle of Sabo and Marco cuddling on the couch with Haruta giving them stank looks while tinkering with a small explosive.

Normal things.

It wasn't Marco's fault that Sabo like cuddling with him more than picking on him with his little sister. No matter how much Sabo adored Haruta.

Dinner was a slightly more subdued affair, only seven siblings were home plus Sabo, so instead of the normal boisterous mess it was more like the family dinner portrayed on TV.

Well until Marco decided to bring up Sabo's new inquiry to Pops.

"Hey Pops…"

The slightly larger than human man looked up from his mashed potatoes to smile at his son, eyes twinkling as his gaze strayed to the two blonds' clasped hands.

"What is it, son?"

"Do-what do you know about a student named Ace, yoi?" Marco hesitated briefly, mostly because he was trying to decide how to phrase his question.

Sabo tightened his grip on the older blond's hand when Pops' head snapped to look at them both more closely. Marco hadn't seen Pops look that serious since the last time he was considered as an active duty hero, which was a long long time ago.

"Why are you asking, Marco?"

Oh wow. It had to be something important, Pops never used anything besides an endearment unless one of them had done something bad or it was something grim.

"Oh, um, well, it's…" Marco was so not used to serious Pops, he just wasn't like that. He was a fun-loving parent, ever since they were adopted, Pops tried to always be caring.

So it wasn't a surprise that the blond hero was stuttering and his siblings were looking at the whole exchange with wide eyes.

"He's asking for me, Pops."

Marco swung his head to the side, looking at the scarred side of his boyfriend's face in surprise. No one ever wanted to be the center of serious Pops' attention, but here's Sabo. Doing it anyway.

"Well then why do you want to know, Sabo?"

Pops had the foresight to add a little more warmth into his words and to slacken his serious face, no longer the scary ex-hero, but once again their loving father.

"I was just curious about him…he left class in a rush after lunch and he never came back for last class, and he answered roll call in a different language, and he's always covered from head to toe, and he only joined the school last year, and-"

Sabo was rambling again so Marco held his hand a bit tighter, smiling as Pops smiled, his mustache raising as he laughed loudly, cutting the younger blond off mid-rant.

"Gurararara! Of course he caught your interest, son. He's an interesting student, that's for sure."

Both blonds' face lit up with bright wide smiles and it was an infectious gesture that spread to everyone around the table, Haruta in particular grabbing Sabo's other hand and giggling.

"So you'll tell us about him, yoi?"

"Gurarara! Of course not!" Pops boomed, and Sabo's face fell horribly, but the large smile on the old man's face meant that he didn't mean it in the way it sounded.

"But-"

"Son." Sabo stopped immediately, cheeks flushing at the word. The younger didn't have an affectionate family, so he reveled in Marco's, loving that they accepted him so readily and loved him as much as they loved their brother/son.

"Your curiosity is peaked. But that's because you like mysteries. Would you feel truly satisfied if you found out the answers to your questions from me? Or would you rather discover them for yourself?"

Marco's boyfriend pulled his head back suddenly, blinking rapidly as he looked at Pops. A tilt to the head was the indicator for him to smile widely, his boyfriend really hadn't thought of that had he. Adorable.

Sabo opened his mouth but nothing came out as his eyebrows furrowed and he turned his gaze to Haruta, who was smiling up at him as if nothing had changed.

Finally he just slumped back into his chair and dropped his head on Marco's shoulder, hiding his face in the juncture of his neck.

" _¿Por qué no pensé en eso?_ (Why didn't I think about that?)" He mumbled into his neck, sending a shiver down Marco's spine but only making his smile widen some more.

"Gurarara!"

Marco could feel Sabo's face getting warmer and he chuckled along with his father, using the hand not holding his boyfriend's to run his fingers through the shaggy blond hair.

Suddenly Pops stopped laughing and once again gave them a semi-serious look, making Marco return the look with similar seriousness.

"I will tell you something though." Sabo untucked his head and looked over at Pops after that, face still pink but his eyes just as serious as Marco's.

"That student has been through a lot. He's also not used to social interaction, so be cautious of how you approach him and your questions." Pops was smiling gently and both blonds nodded at that, nice to have something to go on for an interaction tomorrow.

"Alright, so who can tell me the best story about their day? Gurarara!"

Dinner went on as usual from there, all the kids trying to one up the other on who did the most ridiculous thing that day. Unsurprisingly, Haruta won this time with a story about one of the girls in her middle school class making fun of one of the quieter kids so she stuck a small stink bomb under her chair.

She smelt like a dumpster all day and every single one of her brothers gave her a high five, and Pops gave her a warm hug.

Rakuyo and Thatch both fought to get Pops to eat more than just mashed potatoes and corn, but it was a hard battle. With the promise of one of the finer bottles of booze he consented to eat some more of the meat and a pile of broccoli with cheese and bacon.

Marco and Sabo made their way to the elder's room, both nursing full stomachs and giving the family a short goodbye, and telling them their plan on going out on a short patrol before bed.

Sabo didn't even bother to tell his parents that he was going to stay over at the Newgate's tonight, as he never did during the school year. His biological parents didn't really care, as long as he maintained high grades and did nothing to "sully" his brother's name while he was off risking his life for rabble.

They would never bother to say anything negative about the Newgate family, knowing that Pops took all those insults seriously and would rain down some serious pain if he ever found out. Which he would because Marco would tell him. He was a good boyfriend like that.

"Ugh…Thatch and Rakuyo really outdid it this time. Though I kinda wish someone knew how to make desserts…I could use some chocolate right now dammit!" Sabo complained as he plopped himself on the large king sized bed in Marco's very blue room.

Said elder smiled in response before he walked over to his boyfriend and lay right on top of him. The chuckles that left Sabo's mouth in breathy bursts made Marco continue on with his shenanigans, licking the back of his boyfriend's neck.

But the younger was never one to just let Marco do what he wanted, so he flipped them around. Marco was on his back on the bed, looking up to Sabo's mischievous blue eyes, and let out his own laugh when the Magical Boy leaned down for a kiss, his hands sliding up the firm chest as he did.

They shared some short kisses, never leaving their lips together long, but enjoying the feeling of being so close after sitting so far away in classes for the day.

Finally as the sun was fully set, Sabo placed his head over Marco's chest and just closed his eyes, humming quietly to a song he used to hear a lot as a child.

It was such a peaceful moment that Marco never wanted to end, but Sabo would beat himself up if they didn't patrol tonight. The first day of the school year always brought the villains out for some reason, obviously them thinking that the school-aged heroes and Magical Children would be too tired.

Not Phoenix and Blue Gentleman.

They barely ever took a night off, only when Marco's brothers could cover them would they even consider taking some down time; which is generally only when they want to go on a normal date instead of a powered one.

"Alright, love. We need to get ready to go out if we still plan on going out on patrol, yoi."

Sabo "mmm"-ed slightly, lifting his head and pressing his lips to Marco's clavicle then another to his lips, smile dancing on his face as he let this one get a little deeper.

He wrapped his arms around Sabo's back, lifting himself up a little with sheer abdominal muscles, prying open the other's mouth so their tongues could meet.

The moan the younger blond let out didn't even reach the air as Marco swallowed it down greedily, pressing in closer and moving his hands lower.

Unfortunately it didn't get much farther, Sabo interrupting the intimate atmosphere with a laugh and sliding his top hat pin from out of his collar.

Blue eyes glinted as Sabo held the pin in his hand, planting a kiss on the corner of Marco's mouth, he spoke quietly.

"From the blue of the night, I am the Protector."

Marco turned his head away from his boyfriend as the bright light enveloped him and he sighed, covering his eyes with his hand the brighter it got.

Damn responsibilities.

He always wondered what happened to Sabo while he was in the cocoon of bright light, his boyfriend never wanted to tell him. Maybe it involved being naked. Sabo was always shy when it came to his body, despite Marco's many assurances.

Oh well.

As the light started to dim, Marco made his way to his closet, tapping the handle in a specific rhythm to open the compartment with his suit.

"Blue Gentleman." Was whispered quietly from by the bed and the blond threw a smile over his shoulder at his newly transformed boyfriend.

The ruffles and the leggings always made his mouth water, but he focused on getting to his super suit and changing as quickly as possible.

"You know it's kind of unfair that you don't have to worry about cleaning and putting your costume anywhere secure because your magical device does it all for you. Hell you don't even have to take time to change, yoi."

Sabo, Blue Gentleman, laughed loudly as Marco got into his suit as fast as possible, taking care that the durable material fell all the right way to protect his body.

As he carefully grabbed his mask off of his tall shelf, Marco let his tail feather sprout out of his tailbone, smiling at the freeing feeling. Keeping his phoenix nature inside all the time was stressful, and he could only be glad that his family didn't mind that he spent weekends mostly as the bird. Or part of the bird, depending on his mood.

Once he was all put together, no longer Marco Newgate but the superhero Phoenix, he smiled at his boyfriend, his partner, and held out his hand.

Blue Gentleman returned the smile, white teeth proudly shown as his gloved hand slipped into Phoenix's bare one.

The glass French doors that lead to his personal porch opened automatically as always and the two protectors of the city stepped out smoothly.

Phoenix breathed in the cool night air and smirked over at his boyfriend, flicking his arms into his burning blue wings, cackling as Blue frowned.

"I'll race ya around the city, yoi."

The frown transformed into a smirk that matched his normal personality in his top hatted form and Phoenix rustled a little at what that visage did to his body.

"You think you can win?"

"I'm Phoenix, love. You think you can win?"

"I know I can, dear."

"Oh it's on, Ruffles."

And the Magical Boy cheated by pushing Phoenix back and jumping off of the porch, laughing maniacally as he headed towards the normal villain haunts.

He loved that boy to death, but oh was it on!

 **TBC**

 ***For your convenience there is a hastily drawn up class schedule and current seat arrangement on my tumblr~ thatonefanficwriternooneknows :P**

 ****** _ **Caldo verde**_ **is a popular green soup in Portuguese cuisine, traditionally made with potatoes, kale (sometimes substituted with collard greens), olive oil, and salt (Rouge likes to throw in ham hock for Ace's lunch for a little more protein)**

 **The Portuguese was shamelessly from Google Translate then edited the lovely anadiangelo! THE SPANISH TRANSLATIONS ARE JUST SHAMELESSLY FROM GOOGLE TRANSLATE, IF YOU HAVE ANY CORRECTIONS PLEASE MESSAGE ME ON TUMBLR!**

 **HAHAHAHAHA!**

 **So would anyone believe me if I said that this was supposed to stay at 5k? I tried to stop it at 6, BUT SOMEONE NAMED SETSU SAID IT SOUNDED STILTED SO I SAID FUCK IT AND ENDED UP ALMOST 3K MORE THAN THAT!**

 **Happy it's been a while? Maybe because I waited 2 months to give y'all a continuation?**

 **Whatever man~ I don't even care anymore~**

 **I bothered the crap out of Setsu about this chapter CAUSE I WORRY ABOUT EVERYTHING, so let me know what you think alright?**

 **See ya next time~**


	3. O Começo

**Uhhh…hey y'all? Been a while, huh? A little over a year and a half? So sorry about that…I've actually had about 2.6k of this finished since the last time y'all saw me, but like I fell out of One Piece so hard? It was scary how not into it I have been…**

 **Anyway a lot has happened since August of 2016? I started dating Setsu for a while, then she broke up with me after 10 months (so this chapter is NOT beta-ed), I graduated with a BA in English, I'm working for Disney World now…**

 **Yeah it's been a trip…uh enjoy?**

 **ONWARD!**

Ace's day was not the best. Not the worst, but definitely a bad day.

Having been pulled from his classes early was something that had not happened to Ace since he first started at Grand Line. But then he also had not had any direct contact with the people there since then anyway.

The best part of his day was without a doubt being able to feel Sabo and Marco's emotions when he had the change. They were certainly refreshing emotions from the dozens of self-centered _dotado_ that attended Grand Line.

However Ace was still taking the evening easy.

With just his close family in the house, he was finally able to lose most of his layers. He was just wearing a tank-top and a pair of loose fitting cargo pants now.

Ace was mostly just lounging in his room, focusing inward on cycling through the nearby emotions of his family. Some of their direct neighbors emotions leaked in but for the most part Ace could simply filter them back out.

It was seriously relaxing just to feel the steady positive emotions of his family and it was almost enough to put Ace into a nice settling nap, but he could not ruin his sleep schedule or else his narcolepsy medication would not work as effectively.

The unintended nap that lasted the entire ride home from school was already too much deviation from the norm, and Ace did not want another sleepless night to add on to his messed up life.

Besides _mãe_ had said that dinner would be light tonight anyway, so as to not upset Ace's stomach from it's earlier purging. And the lessening of the protein will make it much easier to fall asleep as long as he does not take a nap now, no matter how much he wants to.

But speaking of his stomach, Ace's eyebrows furrowed as he remembered his body's reaction to the _valentão_ touching him. He had never had such a violent reaction to someone else's emotions before, not even negative ones that were similar to the ones that had caused Ace to run for the restroom.

It could not be that Ace was getting stronger…he was already seventeen, his _dom_ should be completely developed by now.

But if he **was** getting stronger…he would definitely need to talk to _Tio_ Ray about possibly expanding his knowledge of what he could actually do. And _Tio_ Ray's ability always came in handy when Ace was trying out different things that effect his empathic abilities.

Being empathic was all well and good, but Ace could not truly HELP anyone with his _dom_. Not like the Phoenix and Blue Gentleman could.

All Ace could do was feel other people's emotions, he could not do anything with that except maybe a psychological attack, but that would be rather useless as a hero…

Ace sighed resigned and kicked his legs up, using the momentum to spring himself off of his bed. Getting caught up in his thoughts while lying in bed was not helping anything and it certainly did not make staying awake any easier.

Now was probably as good a time as any for his _corrida da noite_ (evening run), and it was the first night of school anyway. Everyone knew that _vil_ _õ_ _es_ (villains) used this day to test the waters of their school-aged enemies "bedtimes".

Ace thought it was pretty stupid of the _vil_ _õ_ _es_ considering Blue Gentleman and Phoenix were ALWAYS patrolling, but then Ace could hardly tell the _vil_ _õ_ _es_ what they should and should not do.

Either way, this was a good evening to go for a run earlier than normal so he could go to bed early enough to actually catch up on sleep. After all, the _civis_ (civilians) knew this was an active night for _vil_ _õ_ _es_. And Ace knew how to keep said _vil_ _õ_ _es_ away from him while he was out.

He had had plenty of practice on nights like this anyway.

It would be nice to leave the house without equipping all of his "armor" anyway.

So with his mind made up, Ace slipped off his bed to grab his trainers from his closet before heading down the stairs.

The light tickling in his head as soon as he left his room let him know that, like every night Shanks came over for a visit, all the adults were drinking.

No one was truly drunk yet, but the ticklishness of his brain did let Ace know that no one was completely sober either.

The sight that greeted him in the _sala de estar_ (living room) was one he had seen many times before. _Mãe_ and _Pai_ were cuddled together on the love seat, each with a glass of _Licor Beir_ _ã_ _o*_ cocktail, and _Padrinho_ Shanks and Benn were stacked together on the recliner, each holding a bottle of _Poncha**_.

As soon as they caught sight of Ace, they all yelled his name at varying volumes, clearly excited to see hi out of his room.

 _Mãe_ tried to rise from her seat but Ace stopped her before she could by holding out a hand, _Portugu_ _ê_ _s_ sliding out from his moth without him thinking twice about it.

" _To saindo pra a minha corrida_ _noturna_ _, devo estar de volta antes da janta ficar pronta._ (I am going out for my evening run. I should be back before dinner is ready.)"

Every single adult frowned at his words and Ace sighed, thinking about what he wanted to say, and how to translate it into _Ingl_ _ê_ _s_ in his head.

"I am…go…ing out for my…night run. Will be back for…dinner." Ace spoke slowly and tried to remember Dadan's rules for verbs and the sentence **sounded** good but _Ingl_ _ê_ _s_ was stupid so what did he know.

Ace glanced up at his _fam_ _í_ _lia_ and saw wide smiles on every face, and the tickling in his head faded to bubbles that made Ace smile just as wide.

"See, _filho_ , a bit of practice and you will be fluent in not time!"

Ace kept smiling even if the wide stretch of his mouth slackened a bit at his the words his _pai_ said. He knew he needed practice, but he was not about to get that at school. Not after how all his classmates had reacted to his horrible _Ingl_ _ê_ _s_ his first week at school.

No, he would much prefer continuing his practice with his _fam_ _ília_ until he was confident enough in his _Ingl_ _ê_ _s_ skills that no one will make fun of him when he starts speaking.

"Well have fun on your run, _meu beb_ _ê_. Do be careful of the villains out and about today and please take your cellphone with you this time."

 _M_ _ã_ _e_ was smiling on the outside, but Ace could feel the pangs of her worry poking harshly at his stomach. He smiled at her through the dull pain and waved the device before making a show of sliding it into one of his pants' many pockets.

The pangs lightened to little pricks and Ace smiled wider as he slid on his shoes, making sure to tighten the laces so they would not fly off while he was running.

It only happened once before, but it was inconvenient enough in the dark that Ace knew he never wanted to repeat the experience.

"Yeah, _meu filho_ , do be careful out there and call if you run in to any trouble. We may be retired but your _m_ _ã_ _e_ and I can still pack one heck of a punch when we want to."

 _Velho_ was still tickling tipsy but there was also a solid stone wall in Ace's stomach that spoke of the determination running through _velho_ as well.

Ace could always count on his parents in the end.

He smiled and waved at his parents and his godfathers as he headed towards the door, he had a rather good feeling about tonight, a complete change around from how his day had started.

The sun was just barely going down when Ace shut the door tightly behind him. He took a moment to adjust the strings on his pants, mostly making sure that they would not fall down as he ran.

Looking down at his arms had Ace focusing on his tattoo, wondering if he should actually go back inside to change his shirts.

Ultimately he decided not to, Ace was not planning on running in to anyone, and no one besides his _fam_ _ília_ knew it was there in the first place, so he would be as unrecognizable as he normally was.

Taking in a deep breath of air and wincing slightly at the sheer amount of emotions he could feel, Ace lost himself in his mind as his body started heading towards his favorite place on auto pilot.

The path to his little secret seclusion from the world was hardly populated, but Ace still used the physical strain of the run to lose his mind in his own abilities for once. Never did he ever try and actually sink in to the emotions that Ace was feeling.

Already it felt like everyone else's emotions had some sort of effect on Ace and he never wanted to amplify that so he tended to stay away from his own ability, kind of locking it as far away inside of him as he could and still function.

The amplification of his _dom_ as the _valentão_ touched him only caused Ace to worry more about how strong the empathy was going to get before it stopped altogether. He could hardly deal with it now, what would happen if it just kept growing?

Would Ace eventually overload from the sheer amount of emotions he could feel coming from the people all around him? Would he ever be able to be around people without being disgusted by the emotions they all felt on the inside while their outside reflected the opposite?

Ace sped up his run slightly, hoping that maybe focusing on his physical body would stop his mind to wondering to his _dom_.

Of course it did not work.

It seemed like Ace could only ever come back to thinking about how annoying his _dom_ was and how he would give anything to have one that did not practically cripple him every time he tried to go outside with skin showing.

Ace was breathing heavy now and he could see the woods fast approaching, soon he could just sit and meditate his _dom_ into submission. Then he could go home, eat with his _fam_ _í_ _lia,_ and then maybe get to bed at a decent hour.

Some strange emotions were tickling at the edge of Ace's awareness.

It did not slow him down in the least, but it also gave him something to focus on at the very least.

The sun had long since set, the nights already growing steadily longer with the onset of fall, but Ace was not concerned. Nighttime had never scared him, and certainly not in his favorite forest, with his favorite seat just ahead.

He slowed down to a light jog, keeping his eyes open for the practically invisible signs Ace had left to find his way back to his stump.

Ace's mind was not focused on the physical exertion or the search for his seat. No. Ace's mind was focusing solely on the three emotions he could feel from the other side of the forest.

Two of them felt almost familiar, like he had felt them before, only something was slightly different now than whenever he had felt them. And Ace got caught up trying to decipher **that** mystery that he did not even notice when he passed right by one of his trails.

The feelings two of the people were giving off felt a lot like when _vov_ _ô_ (grandpa) changed from Garp to The Fist, his superhero identity.

Maybe the two beacons of strange emotions were the alter-egos of some of the kids from school, that would explain why the third beacon was completely unfamiliar. Probably a villain of some kind.

Ace would have turned around and started heading back towards _casa_ simply so he did not have to deal with someone in his day life seeing what he looked like under his layers. Even if they would have no way of knowing it was him.

But the beacons were not heading in his direction in the least, so Ace figured he would be fine to sit on his log and meditate for a few minutes before heading home.

It was just Ace's luck that as he reached that decision, he tripped over his log and fell flat on his face on the forest floor.

" _Puta que Pairu! Que merda! T_ _á_ _doendo pra caralho!_ (Son of a bitch! Piece of shit! That hurt like a fuck!)" Ace spoke to himself, rubbing his head but still laying on the soft undergrowth of the forest.

He glared at the log and kicked it as he stood back up, brushing the leaves and dirt off of his bare arms and tank-top. Ace's pants were black so nothing showed up on them anyway, so he just did not bother before sitting down on the not quite dead fallen log.

Ace kept in mind _Tio_ Ray's advice and counted backwards from ten in _Portugu_ _ês_ , focusing inward on the little flares of emotions that kept lighting up in different brightness levels.

The brightest emotions were the ones closest to him physically, and the dimmer the emotions the further away they were. The three emotional beacons he felt earlier where hanging around the same place as when he first felt them so Ace completely brushed them off for now.

He mostly wanted to focus on seeing how far he could stretch his empathy before it started to either get to draining for his body, or the sheer amount of the emotions started to pound at his head.

Ignoring the three closest beacons, Ace first went towards the familiar feel of _mãe, pai,_ Benn, Shanks, Dadan, and even the tickling of _vov_ _ô_ from the edge of the city. Their emotions were fairly light right now, clearly indicating that the four he left at home were still drinking.

 _Vov_ _ô_ was a mess of stomach pangs, headaches, and soreness in Ace's back muscles, which meant that the old man was probably running after _vil_ _õ_ _es_ even though he was technically retired. The worry, mild anger, and stress was nothing new to Ace, so he just made a note to talk to _pai_ about the old man and moved on.

Dadan was a wonderful void of nothing, which meant she was deep in the middle of REM sleep, which Ace would not begrudge her. In fact he sort of wished that was him right now too.

Slowly Ace cleared his mind of the familiar emotions of his family and started reaching himself across the city. The feelings were all muted, like being felt physically from the other side of a thick mattress, and Ace could not pick apart anything specific but it still alarmed him that he could feel practically **all of the city**.

Ace took a few more deep breaths, continuing his counting as he started to draw his awareness back to himself and the immediate area. No need to torture himself with more emotions than he absolutely had to.

The process was much slower in reverse than it was when Ace spread his perception across the city. But it was important that Ace not go too fast otherwise he would end up passed out on the forest floor with no one nearby to help him.

Ace started to hum to himself lightly, a song Luffy had come up with one night when the younger was extremely bored with all the "adult stuff" that was going on around them. Ace always remembered the notes even if the words were beyond idiotic.

His awareness was folding back into his body quite nicely, and it did not even come with the overwhelming emotions of his neighbors because he was in the **forest**.

It was so blissful.

He kept on humming, even as Ace zoned himself out from everything. He was more focused on wrapping his _dom_ up in as much mental cotton as he could before he headed back into society.

The night would have ended just like that, with a short but productive stretching session for his _dom_ , and a wonderful run that stretched out his physical body as well.

But Ace was never known for having the most stellar luck, that was Luffy's unfair gift.

And the unluckiness came in the physical form of the _vil_ _õ_ _es_ he felt earlier shoving his way through the trees and into Ace's secret grove.

The man was wearing a weird fox mask and was clearly staring at Ace with shock, if the ringing in his ears was anything to go by.

A weird sort of heavy bubble was also approaching rapidly, following the path of the _vil_ _õ_ _es_ that Ace was too distracted to notice. The person that appeared out of the forest line this time was much more surprising than the _vil_ _õ_ _es._

Blue Gentleman was in the clearing now.

Sabo's alter-ego Magical Boy was chasing this weird fox _vil_ _õ_ _es_ and they were **both now in Ace's clearing**.

For once the emotions of the blond Magical could not calm Ace down from the freak out that was no doubt going to rise up like the bubble in his stomach should.

Sabo's emotions were much thicker as Blue Gentleman, heavy in a way that meant he ignored his feelings as they grew and grew.

It was not healthy in anyway to treat emotions like that, but Ace could not even talk to Sabo as Sabo…what on earth would he be able to say to **Blue Gentleman**.

Ace was much too busy freaking about his life to notice the Magical Boy's reaction to Ace, but he was not so far gone that he missed another emotional beacon popping up in the clearing as well.

Grey eyes shifted slightly and widened as Ace took in the half form of **Phoenix** also now in his clearing.

 _T_ _á_ _tudo bem, t_ _á_ _tudo bem, calma, Ace._ _É_ _ó_ _bvio que isso_ _é_ _s_ _ó um sonho ruim, e o Phoenix e o Blue Gentleman não tão mesmo na sua clareira secreta, aquela que você encontrou umas semanas atrás. Você tá claramente alucinando._ (Okay, okay. Calm down, Ace. Obviously this is a bad dream, and the Phoenix and Blue Gentleman are not REALLY in the secret clearing you found a few weeks ago. You are clearly hallucinating.)

Then all three strangers started moving and Ace knew.

This was not a hallucination at all.

 **DUN DUN DUN! It's a line.**

"Ugh! Fucking shit!"

"Hahaha!" a light giggling followed the curse as the blond man in black landed on his ass after missing his catch.

"Oh be quiet, yoi! Go catch the villain, Blue!"

The blond on the floor was decked out in a completely black suit; black jacket, black button-up, black tie, black pants, and black boots. The only visible color was the bright blue and gold tail swishing around on the ground and a similarly colored bird-like masquerade mask.

The nose of the mask was pointed like a beak, yellow in color and there are dark blue circles around the eye holes. And the rest of the mask was bright blue like the tail, with the minor exception of a series of bright yellow "tufts" at the top of the mask.

He was quite the sight, sitting on the ground as a villain in a fox mask laughed maniacally and danced away.

Following the oddly dressed villain was another blond, this one dressed almost as fancy as the one on the floor.

On his shaggy blond locks was a black top hat with a dark blue ribbon around the base. His eyes were covered by dark blue goggles, a dark blue button up closed together with a white cravat at the collar and a thick black belt at the waist.

There was a black jacket over top that ends just above black leggings, with ruffles that extended to the back of the mid-thigh. Black combat boots that went up to the half-calf finished off the look.

The goggle wearing blond continued laughing at his downed ally as he chased after the "Foxy Bandit".

"I'm on it, Phoenix! Make sure no civvies are left in the area, yeah?" Blue tilted his hat at his companion and put a little extra speed into his stride.

When they were both out of sight, Phoenix stood and patted all the dirt off of his suit, grumbling to himself.

"He thinks he's so funny, yoi. Laughing at me cause I dodged that stupid beam. Why can't my masked boyfriend be as nice as he is when he's unmasked, yoi? I don't deserve this kind of karma, dammit!"

Once he was all back together in a neat suit, he glanced towards the direction he saw the two run off in. A slight tilt of his head to the side, Phoenix used his heightened hearing and grumbled again when he heard a civvie in the direction the Magical Boy was chasing the villain.

"Dammit. What kind of civilian is in this creepy ass park this late at night, yoi? It's not safe at all. Not to mention freaking villains always try to hide from us here."

With a flick of his hands his arms transformed into bright blue and yellow flaming feathers that matched his namesake. Adding a kick to the ground and a flap of his newly formed wings, Phoenix was flying towards the humming civilian.

Absentmindedly the flying blond kicked his feet and transformed them into long taloned claws that replaced his knees down.

The sudden lack of dense human bones there helped the fiery bird fly a bit faster. But despite the added speed another tilt of the head made him realize that he still wasn't going to reach the civilian before the villain and pursuing Magical Boy.

Upon understanding that fact, Phoenix tucked his wings and did a barrel roll, head facing forward now turning into an actual beak and bird's head. The mask he was wearing as a human practically melded to his face, blue rings and fiery flames intact, neck elongating to match the sudden change in sizes.

His torso thinned until it was the same flaming blue as the rest of his body; the only exception being the dark blue symbol on his chest of a cross with a mustache. A representation of his old man that he had even in his human form.

With all of the dense bones now replaced with the proper hollow bones of a bird, he was able to fly much faster. His wings tucking and spreading as he dodged the dense collection of trees.

It took a few minutes, turning his head every now and then to see if the sounds had changed at all.

The rustling of leaves and Blue's light steps on branches meant that the Magical Boy was still chasing the villain. But the villain was a bit harder to pinpoint the exact location of because Phoenix wasn't at all familiar with the steps.

He did still hear the humming of the civvie though, so that had to be good right?

Until the phoenix realized that Sabo's steps were fast approaching the humming civilian, which means so was the villain.

Not good.

Phoenix flaps his wings a bit more, making sure that the wind was blowing with him as he flew, dodging trees by mere centimeters at this point.

The humming became louder and louder until Phoenix burst into a clearing he didn't even know existed in the forest he visited often, and then the sound went silent.

Of course that could be because Blue was standing in the clearing looking at the civvie with wide eyes, Foxy Bandit slightly off to the side of the random human.

All three powered beings were looking at the civilian, sitting on the bench made of a fallen tree trunk, with different looks.

Blue was looking at them with what looks like awe, Phoenix with absolute shock causing him to land slightly less gracefully than he normally would, and Foxy Bandit with sadistic glee painted in his wide smile.

The other person had wide shining grey eyes, freckles dotted generously across a very nicely defined face. Loose black hair fell against a slim but muscled neck.

An orange tank top covered what looked like a perfectly molded torso, a black tattoo peeking from the front of the left bicep. Black cargo pants covered legs and any kind of visible definition, and the feet were covered in run down trainers, well-used but obviously well cared for.

They were **attractive**.

If Phoenix wasn't in his form he would have blushed, and Blue was already flushed, red running across his cheeks and down the back of his neck. Dating minds think alike it seems.

All the movement in the clearing seemed to restart as grey eyes twitched and a hand rose to touch lightly on a temple.

"Noro Noro BEAM!"

The loud voice rang through the air and both blonds snapped their gazes to the villain that they were previously chasing.

Foxy Bandit had his right arm extended towards the beautiful civvie, middle and ring finger pressed to the thumb as the pointer and pinky were raised.

Both the hero and Magical Boy were still a bit too shocked to move and the purple "beam" hit the civilian dead on.

When Foxy Bandit cackled at it looked like nothing had happened to the innocent, the two blonds gave each other looks that clearly said "this guy isn't a threat at all".

But then Phoenix's eyes narrowed as he watched the other's eyes widen very very slowly. He could see a hint of fear start off small then grow and grow as they all three collectively realized what the "useless" beam did to the civvie.

"What did you do, Foxy Bandit?" Blue yelled, holding out his right hand as he summoned his pipe-like bo staff.

Phoenix watched as his boyfriend crouched and readied himself for battle. However he also kept an eye on the civilian as their eyes widened some more and their hands moved like a snail up to grip at his head, lips pressing together tighter and turning the pink shade to white.

Blue wings arched up, fiery feathers flaring as Phoenix let out a loud and harsh squawk. Blue twirled his bo staff and immediately launched at the still cackling villain with a speed that should be impossible.

The combat boots left very defined dents in the dirt floor.

After watching the first hit connect harshly to the square chin and sent the villain crashing into nearby trees, Phoenix flew himself over to the slowly panicking civilian.

As he flew over he flicked his talons to change them back to human feet. He twisted his long neck and bird head eventually shaking back into the bird mask and blond hair.

Landing lightly, a flick outward of his wings shifted them back into arms and his chest extending back to the sculpted chest he was used to.

The transformation took barely a few moments and Phoenix was at the beautiful person's side, placing his hand lightly on the other's shoulder.

With the same slow motion movement as before, the black-haired person's eyes squeezed shut, head jerking away from the hand Phoenix placed on the shoulder.

Immediately after realizing his touch was unwanted, Phoenix jerked it away and lifted both in the air, hanging out by his head.

Backing away from the civilian, Phoenix used his softest voice and tried to settle the person he had accidentally scared.

"Hey, hey. I'm sorry, yoi. I didn't mean to scare you. I'll stay over here, alright?"

The grey eyes were revealed slowly as the civvie hunched his shoulders and looked over at Phoenix's prone form with what looked like pain and anxiety.

Maybe Foxy's beam did more than slow people down?

"Hey, it's okay. You see that guy over there with the ruffled coat, yoi?"

Phoenix waited patiently as the grey eyes flicked over to the top-hatted blond then back to the suited blond and nodded slowly, chin tucking in for a brief moment.

A bright smile stretched across the super hero's face at the response. It was a little bit cute.

"That's Blue Gentleman, yeah? He's gonna figure out how to reverse what that villain did, okay, yoi?"

To his surprise the other's look didn't change at all, no shock at the presence of Blue Gentleman, no relief at being fixed, just the anxiety and a slow wince.

This civilian was both interesting and strange, and, as a teen who has had a boyfriend for almost two years, he feels a bit bad about his actual level of interest.

"Oi Blue! Stop beating up a weak villain, yoi! How do we reverse that beam thing?"

Phoenix's sudden shout caused the civvie to slowly close their left eye and tuck their cheek into the same shoulder. A tanned hand rose again and placed it over their other eye.

"I'm sorry, yoi." He lowered his tone as he realized the loudness was what the other was being paired by.

Blue landed on Phoenix's other side, bo staff dismissed and a black and blue Foxy Bandit clutched in both gloved hands. The hero couldn't help but smirk flirtingly at his boyfriend for successfully capturing a villain.

"Alright, _Foxy_. How do we reverse what you did?" Blue's voice was low and clearly threatening, Phoenix fought to keep the shiver from racing down his spine in reaction.

Doing a weird jerk in front of the attractive stranger because his boyfriend was really sexy was not the best thing that he could do at the moment.

"Shhaahaha…Itsh shelf-rheleashing. Ghotcha waitch ith outsh. (It's self-releasing. Gotta wait it out.)" the villain let out, broken teeth and swollen tongue making talking a bit difficult.

"Greeeeaaat. How long do we have to wait?"

Right as the defeated Foxy mumbled "Shirty shecodsh (Thirty seconds)" the civilian jerked back at normal speed, flailing his arms as he tilted backwards, clearly about to fall off the bench.

Phoenix reacted immediately and grabbed the hand that was closest to him, but yanked it back when the other smacked it away and fell anyway.

Just as fast as they fell, the civvie was on their feet again and backing away from the hero, Magical Boy, and the villain.

Grey eyes were shown in their entirety as they widened, hands clutching each other close to the defined chest, backing up towards the trees. He started flicking his eyes side to side, almost as if looking for an escape route.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. We aren't going to hurt you, yoi, I won't touch you again. I'm sorry I surprised you." Phoenix kept his voice low, hands up again in the gesture he made earlier.

"We just want to make sure that you're alright. Is that okay?"

The other pursed his lips and shook his head, black locks of hair flicking into his face shielding those expressive grey eyes.

"Alright…well can you tell us if anything hurts? So we can get some first aid or some assistance for you?" Blue spoke softly, hands still on Foxy as he glanced over to Phoenix to see if maybe he had a better approach to this.

Eyelids raised even more and the grey eyes were almost bulging as the civilian pursed his lips and shook his head even faster. One of his hands, his right the Phoenix noticed idly, raised and touched lightly to the base of his throat, eyes once again flicking sided to side.

"You can't speak, yoi?"

This time their eyebrows furrowed, his head tilted left and his eyes looked to the ground. Seemed to be enough of a confirmation for the two and they both smiled friendly smiles.

"No worries no worries. Are you hurt…um…sir?" Blue started off confident but ended on a shy question, taking a shot in the dark about the person's gender.

Just because he looks like a man…

A quick shake of the head got an answer but they quickly realized that it could be in response to the spoken and unspoken question.

"You aren't hurt, yoi?"

Another shake of the head.

"You are a sir, though?"

A smile stretched across the lovely face, no teeth showing but the emotion was still there and both blonds smiled in response.

They just stood there, smiling at the attractive man, hanging on to a now unconscious villain. And they probably would have continued to do so if the other man's smile didn't start to shrink with his grey eyes narrowing slightly.

It was only then that they realized just how **creepy** they were being.

"Oh right. Um…do you need one of us to accompany you home? It can get pretty dangerous at night." Blue's lips quirked to the side in his normal lop sided smiled and Phoenix had to cover his mouth to stop from outright laughing at his boyfriend.

The other man shook his head in a negative as he lifted his right hand to his lips, finger tips barely brushing them as he quickly lowered it at the elbow, looking as if he was holding a serving tray all of a sudden, smile still on his face.

The blonds both cocked their heads at the gesture, too confused to stop him as he turned and ran into the trees. It didn't stop them from admiring the plump ass in those cargos though.

"Well he was attractive, yoi."

"Nah ya think?" Blue responded sarcastically, sparing a glance to the side at his boyfriend.

Phoenix just returned the look with half-lidded eyes and a relaxed mouth. Bright blue eyes flicked to the villain in the Gentleman's possession and the other blond's eyes widened behind his goggles as if he forgot he was holding Foxy.

"Well it's not like we'll see him again, yoi. Let's take this one to jail, shall we? Maybe we can finish patrol early and enjoy our Friday night a bit, yoi."

"You just read my mind, Feathers. Let's have a little high schooler fun for once!"

"Don't call me Feathers dammit!"

A laugh echoed across the trees as Blue Gentleman took off, Phoenix following shortly after.

 **TBC**

 ***** _Licor Beir_ _ã_ _o_ is a Portuguese spirit with a secret recipe, but it is known to be made of distilled seeds and herbs. The particular cocktail Rouge and Roger are drink is just a shaken drink with _Licor Beir_ _ã_ _o,_ quartered limes and ice cubes.

** _Poncha_ is a traditional Portuguese drink made from _aguardente de cana_ (liqueur distilled from sugar cane), honey, sugar, lemon rind, and lemon juice.

 **THE PORTUGUESE IS ONCE MORE SHAMELESSLY TAKEN FROM GOOGLE TRANSLATE BECAUSE I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO ASK anadiangelo IF THEY'LL CHECK IT FOR ME AGAIN OR NOT! ***EDIT*** Anadiangelo is a saint and fixed my Brazilian Portuguese! I would be lost without you 3**

 **So uh…I'm not really sure how long this kick in OP is gonna last? But I'm gonna try and see how far I can ride it out. I do really love this particular story of mine, so hopefully I can get a few chapters out before my muse takes a hike.**

 **Feel free to come bother me at thatonefanficwriternooneknows on tumblr, I work nights a lot in Florida so my hours are weird…for example it's 4 am here now lol**

 **See y'all next time!**


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